Ohio State vs Texas Rematch in Week 2 Is Already the Game of the Year
Ohio State and Texas play in Austin on Sept. 12. The season opener it is not, but everyone in college football is circling this one anyway.
The Buckeyes are ranked No. 1 in every reasonable preseason poll. The Longhorns are No. 4 in the AP and No. 3 in a couple of USA Today rankings. Both teams believe they are national title favorites. They may both be right.
Ryan Day’s Ohio State team returns nearly the entire offense that ran the College Football Playoff last winter. Quinn Ewers is gone in Austin, but Arch Manning is back, and everyone who watched him close last season understands what he is capable of. The three-star freshman version of Arch Manning is not who is showing up in this game. The five-year-groomed prospect who has been the No. 1 recruit in America for years is who is showing up.
Texas’ offensive line is the best on their roster. Their defense returns nine starters. Their coaching staff is settled. Steve Sarkisian has spent two seasons proving he can build a title contender in Austin, and this year is the year he needs to actually deliver one.
Ohio State’s answer is Julian Sayin at quarterback. He is a redshirt sophomore who inherited the starting job when Will Howard graduated. Sayin is a five-star talent with better mechanics than Howard and a stronger arm. What he does not have is starter experience against a top-five defense on the road at Texas.
Sept. 12 is the type of game that gets talked about for months. Manning versus Sayin. Sarkisian versus Day. SEC opponent versus Big Ten champion. The winner is likely the College Football Playoff No. 1 seed heading into November.
Both teams have Week 1 tune-ups. Ohio State takes on Ball State on Saturday. Texas plays a home game before hosting the Buckeyes. Neither of those games matters unless someone goes down with an injury.
The betting lines are already tight. Ohio State opened as a two-point favorite in Austin, which is unusual for a road game against a top-five opponent. Vegas sees Ohio State as the more complete team. Vegas may or may not be right.
College GameDay is going to Austin for the second consecutive year. ABC has the prime-time broadcast. Every recruit in the country will be at the game or watching it on the couch. Every coach will be studying the film for the following week.
The winner of this game does not automatically make the playoff. The loser does not automatically miss it. But the ripple effect will be enormous. If Texas wins, Arch Manning becomes the frontrunner for the Heisman and Sarkisian’s stock jumps to the top of the coaching hierarchy. If Ohio State wins, Day silences the noise that has followed him since the Michigan losses and Sayin becomes an immediate first-round quarterback conversation.
Two weekends from now, we will know a lot more about the sport. Nobody is missing this one.
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.
